1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of image recognition or object identification and, more particularly, to a low cost image or template generation technique which reduces the number of input frames required to generate images of an object of interest in any desired orientation within a field of view.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent times robots have been introduced into the automated assembly of production parts in ever-increasing numbers. It is often necessary that a robot be able to pick up work pieces from a moving conveyor, for example, and correctly assemble them to a structure of interest. This requires that either the positioning of the work pieces relative to the robot be consistently precise or that the location and orientation of work pieces disposed at random be correctly identified and this information be communicated to the robot so that it may position the pick up accordingly.
Some automated identification systems exist in the prior art. For example, it has been possible to address machine parts or the like as with a video camera to produce a scan frame of the field of view. From this, a pixel scan may then be used to convert the frame into a series of binary bits on a pixel-by-pixel basis to produce a complete frame in memory. This stored "object" frame may then be compared to previously stored data in other frames to identify the part of interest and possibly its location and orientation in the frame in relation to the frame axes.
In order to properly procure meaningful location and orientation information pertaining to objects of interest randomly disposed within the field of view, however, it has heretofore been incumbent on such systems to compare the object image with an unwieldy amount of stored data. This has usually been in the form of numerous frames or "templates" portraying the object of interest in almost every conceivable position throughout the four quadrants of the field of view. While such a system is quite feasible, in addition to memory, it requires a great deal of high speed number-crunching capability, especially if operated on a real-time basis, and is therefore relatively complicated and very expensive.
It is readily apparent that a definite need exists to simplify aspects of a system of the class described such that the necessary tasks may be accomplished by easier, less costly means. This certainly applies to the generation of templates of the object of interest in various orientations to be compared later with an actual object of interest randomly disposed in the field of view.